


Once More

by prosodiical



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 20:05:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8070862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prosodiical/pseuds/prosodiical
Summary: It's January 1st, 2029, and Clover takes Light on a whirlwind of a day.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cricket_aria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cricket_aria/gifts).



Light is woken up on New Years by a knock on his door, quick and sharp, and the repeating incessantly, faster and more urgent. "One moment," he calls out, and pulls on a robe before he goes to his apartment door. The instant he opens it, Clover throws herself into his arms. "Light? Light? Oh god, Light - " and he pulls her close, closing his eyes and breathing in the smell of her hair.

"What's wrong?" he asks, and she shakes her head, her chest heaving with silent sobs. "I'm here, Clover. You were gone for more than a week."

"I," she started, quietly, and shakes her head once again. "It's my work with SOIS. You know."

Light raises an eyebrow, but leads her gently to his couch, setting her down. Clover's hands slip from his own as she leans over, her head nearly between his knees, and he leaves her to start boiling water for tea. As the water starts to boil and he sets leaves into a pot, he can hear Clover's movement - the tear of paper out of a book, the rattle of one of the few pens on his coffee table clicking open. Once he brings out two cups, she's scratching on paper, diligent and focused, and doesn't turn when he settles down beside her. "Clover?"

"I shouldn't be telling you anything," she says, "but, please." She passes the paper, and Light feels along the lines she's pressed deep, so strong the imprint has sunk into the book she was using as a table. "You have to make this, Light."

He says, confused, "Is this a nucleoside analogue? An antiviral? I don't recognize it."

Clover huffs a laugh, leaning into his side. "I should've known you'd know what it was," she says. "Can you make it? Just for you?"

"But if this is an antiviral, there must be a virus it prevents," Light says, feeling apprehensive. "Clover... you were looking into Free the Soul, weren't you? What were they working on there? A - biological weapon?"

Clover takes his hands in hers, and he can feel her studying him, her gaze on him like a physical weight. "Light," she says, quietly, "you can't ask. I can't tell you. And... and after you make this, you should keep it, but only for yourself. You need to destroy the rest."

"And what about you?" Light says. "Clover, you can't be saying - "

"I won't need it," she says, and drops his hands to pick up her cup of tea. "Can't we - can't we just spend this day together, Light? Without questions, or - or worries, or... you haven't shown me around here yet, have you?" she says, so falsely cheerful it hurts. "And you have a concert tonight, right? I can go!"

"Clover," Light says, but she presses her fingers to his mouth and he closes his eyes, ducks his head. "Then," he says, "one day."

He's not entirely sure what Clover gets out of it, milling around in his apartment, poking into his things as he gets dressed for the day. He's glad it's a holiday, that he's finished all his rehearsals, that he can spend as much time with Clover as she clearly wants to; he had felt her disappear from his awareness more than a week ago, and the last time she had gone so quiet he had thought she was dead. Now, she holds his hand and laughs at every not-particularly-funny joke he tries as they wander around his neighborhood, as he points out the parks, the stores, the hall he plays at and she looks around, no doubt with wide eyes.

"And where's the best place to eat?" she asks, and he takes her there. She savors every bite and sits squashed up against him in the bench, and he can hear the way she turns her head every so often, as though to check that he's there.

They go to a fairground later that afternoon, a local one with a half-dozen rides and games. Clover's laugh has a sharp, distressed edge when she throws darts and pops balloons, winning a giant plush cat she insists Light keep, as she sits next to him and he feels the wind rush across his face. "It's beautiful, up here," she says, "the sky's so blue, and you can see for miles - oh, there's your apartment, over there - " and she leans forward over the safety rail, pointing so wildly Light has to reach out and pull her back. "The clouds are wispy and white," she says, "blowing across the sky, and there are birds up there, a flock of them like little black dots, heading south for the winter," and Light tries to bite his tongue and let her have her joy. It's only one day.

It's only one day, when she runs her hands along his harp, plucking strings before his concert, when she tugs at his waistcoat and tie and says, "You'll do great out there, I know it!" Her seat is in the front row and Light is constantly aware she's there, with the way she whoops and cheers at the end of each piece, quiets when he plays. "That was fantastic!" she enthuses, clutching at his arm, and Light says:

"Shall we go home?"

"No," Clover says, "let's stay out for a bit longer."

Light's tired, an odd, careful exhaustion of worry and confusion, but he goes along. Clover drags him past clubs pounding music loud into the night and to an old jazz bar, the piano soothing, the singer crooning. She buys drinks for them both, presses Light's in front of him, and he can smell the alcohol and sugar wafting from her own. "I love you," she says, there, leaning against him heavily, her eyelashes soft against his shoulder, "Light, I love you, you know that, right?"

"Of course," he says, "you're my sister, Clover. I love you, too."

"You're the best brother in the world," Clover says, and she starts shaking, her breath coming in short sharp gasps. "Please - please do what I said, Light. You have to listen to me."

"Clover - " he starts, and she buries her face in his chest as she hugs him, as though it's the last time she ever will.

"You can't look for me," she whispers. "Live, have fun, maybe ask out that old jerk Junpei - "

"What are you talking about, Clover?" Light wraps his arms around her, squeezing her tight.

"Promise," she says, and he shakes his head, confused, his chest aching with something strange he can't name. "Please, Light, promise me."

He says, "I promise," and she lifts one of his hands to her face, mapping out the curve of her eyebrows, the wet of her tears, the edge of her mouth. "Clover, what are you - "

"I'm sorry," she says, and he feels something - footsteps, the rush of air, his world dropping out.

When he wakes in the morning, she's gone.

 

(Clover had said, "You have to send me back! If you can send Sigma, if you can send Phi..."

Akane's expression was remote. "I cannot."

"I need to tell Light!" Clover said. "Please, I'll do anything, you have to let me say something, to tell him goodbye!"

"You are required here," Akane said, "because Sigma remembers you here, looking just as you do now."

"One year," Clover said. "Give me one year, back then with him, one year and I swear I'll come to you to be frozen again - "

"No," Akane said, and Clover could feel the sob tight in her chest, an ache that wouldn't go away.

"Please," she said, "Light's my brother. What about - what about Aoi? You got to say goodbye to him, didn't you?"

Akane looked at her, and Clover tried to find June in her expression, that pretty, smiling girl her age. She couldn't, but Akane must have seen something in Clover, because she said, "Sigma has no self-awareness, but if you age, you will notice. One day. We can send you back to the New Year - you will return, wake from cryo, and have one day before we take you back."

"One day," Clover repeated, "only one day?"

Akane's expression softened, and she looked sympathetic. "You ask about Aoi," she said. "No, I did not."

"Oh," Clover said, and she could feel herself crumple before she bolstered herself, closing her eyes for just a moment. "Okay," she whispered, mostly to herself. "One day. Better make it a good one.")


End file.
